How do I debug Windows services in Visual Studio?

Question

Is it possible to debug the Windows services in Visual Studio?

I used code like

System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Break(); 

but it is giving some code error like:

I got two event error: eventID 4096 VsJITDebugger and "The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion."

Answer 1

Use the following code in service OnStart method:

System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Launch(); 

Choose the Visual Studio option from the pop up message.

Note: To use it in only Debug mode, a #if DEBUG compiler directive can be used, as follows. This will prevent accidental or debugging in release mode on a production server.

#if DEBUG     System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Launch(); #endif